Spirit Animal
by SulkySweet
Summary: To sum it up, nine girls chase down a wild arsonist, need to beat up a magician, and destroy the government. How bad can it be? —I really suck at summaries...
1. Author’s Note

Hey everyone. This is Mister Busybody-and-does-not-have-the-time-to-actually-finish-at-least-one-story, SuικySωεετ.

And just so you know, I have no problem with that. Either you stick to it or not. Just an average story with a major boring plotline. Hahaha, for my standards.

Well, enjoy, if you can.


	2. Savage Arc Part 1

"Kotori?"

More sweat came down.

"Kotori-chan?"

Her face scrunched up, wrinkles quickly adorning her forehead.

"Kotori!"

Heartbeat rampaging aloud.

"KOTORI!!!"

A heave of breath.

Kotori woke up, drenched in sweat and tears, body shaking uncontrollably, breath as heavy and short, eyes bloodshot.

Another nightmare.

"Kotori-chan...," Hanayo, one of Kotori's friend and housemate, went by her side and shrunk down so she was of the same height as Kotori's current position, "Did you have another nightmare?", she asked as soft as her normal voice was, gentle and kind.

Swallowing a bit, she shook her head up and down, eyes closing shut, mouth trying to control her breathing, hands gripping the covers as tightly as her strength could deliver.

Her other housemate, Nozomi, went to the other side of her bed, bending her legs so that they were all of the same height, holding one of Kotori's cold and flimsy hands onto her own, clutching it for dear life.

"We're here for you. No matter what. So please...," she then brought her hand close to her heart, "Rely on us more. Okay?"

Kotori, albeit a bit shaky and unwilling, raised her head and looked at Hanayo and Nozomi respectively, giving both of them a quivering smile and gulped down a mouthful of saliva that was slowly building up from her mouth.

"... Mmm...," she gripped her hands that were being held by her two friends—no, by her family. It was being held by her family.

Her only remaining family.

Δ Ο Π Ο Δ

"So was it about the arson again?", the purple-haired girl, Nozomi, asked Kotori as she ate a spoonful of soup.

The gray-haired girl bit her lower lip, but nodded nonetheless. "It was a bit traumatic on my end... but overall, I'm not really the only victim, so I can't just be selfish right now..."

"B-But even so! It's still affecting you, so it's okay to be selfish. It's not bad, really...," the short brown-haired teen, Hanayo, argued, a light shade of pink on her cheeks, but resolve was evident in her eyes.

Nozomi nodded at the youngest girl's comment and looked at her one-year younger friend who has a smile on her face after Hanayo's opinion of her thoughts. "Hanayo's right. You can be selfish at times, but just because you are doesn't mean you're not thinking of other people, you know. It just means that you're worried about your well-being, just as much as you care for others," she gave an advice of her own, perks of being the oldest and all.

Kotori shook her thoughts away, being replaced by the memories of her two best friends just accompanying her through thick and thin.

"Thanks, you two. I just needed that...," she quickly wiped the upcoming tears before they even had the time to shed.

Hanayo chuckled, "Everyone has their bad days. Just that, yours was one of them that occured today," she played with the hem of her skirt as another wave of pink shades dusted themselves on her cheeks.

Nozomi grinned and pulled out her deck of cards, the usual tarot cards that she uses for her daily readings, "Well, with this kind of bad day, we'll need some spiritual power from the cards", she was about to pick up the upper card on her deck when a knock was heard at the door.

Kotori stood up from her seat, rushing towards the door while saying 'I'll get it!' as she went.

She opened the door of their home, to be greeted with two figures, both with the approximate same height as the gray-haired girl. One was a girl that had short orange hair with a fistful of them tied to a side ponytail and the other was another girl with dark blue hair that was straightened and flowed freely on her back.

"May I help you?", Kotori chirped, almost faking her cheery tone, but it was not far from her usual greeting, so whatever she felt at the moment didn't seem to affect how happily she delivered her greeting.

The blue-haired girl bowed slightly, "I was wondering if this place was the home of the three famous police officers around Otonokizaka, am I correct?", she inquired in a quiet but precise demeanor.

Nozomi and Hanayo, curious as to who were at the door, emerged from behind and glanced at the two visitors, one who seems to be serious about the topic and the other that looks like she was spacing out and not relating to their conversation.

"Yes, that would be us. Do you have a case that we can help with?", she smiled at them, leaving the bluenette with a blush at how cute it is (What am I thinking?! Shameless!!—thoughts of the blue-haired girl) and the oranged-haired girl... still out of it.

Of course, the purple-haired girl saw this and a thought quickly came to life in her head, but she kept it to herself, her teal green eyes glinting with mystery.

"Well... I was hoping that you can help us with a case of...," she muttered the last word.

Hanayo heard it, and it made her eyes go wide, but the other two sadly didn't, "Could you repeat that?", Kotori asked again.

"...," it took the bluenette quite a while before she repeated the word, "... arson..."

Not surprising, the other two had the same expression as Hanayo, but quicky went over it, "So I can safely assume that you are also a victim?", Nozomi asked, confused when the bluenette shook her head.

"My parents were actually dead from the start, seen at a forest in Hokkaido about ten years ago. But I did a research on their deaths, and I've come to a conclusion that the murderer and the arsonist are one and the same", the blue-haired girl explained, "Of course, that is just a theory, and I'm not a hundred percent sure of its accuracy. But I can prove it if I had enough evidence."

She then pointed at the girl next to her, "She was actually the one who was a victim of an arson."

At the mention of her being the victim, her features went limp, face solemn and sad, "Yeah... just about a week ago, I caught my house on fire. Luckily my little sister was with me so she wasn't caught, but Mom and Dad... they...," tears started to build up on the edge of her blue eyes, making them glisten in the sunlight.

The bluenette gave her friend a sympathetic glance, her dark golden brown eyes glazed with concern, "We were both unfortunate with our family, so we kindly ask for your help," she bowed a hundred and eighty degrees, "Please!"

The orange-haired girl followed, "Please help us!"

The three couldn't help but stare at them, with the same caring and understanding gaze. 'So they were the same as us...', they all had the same thoughts, but it was not surprising. Not in the least. After all, they had been together for almost more than a decade.

Kotori clasped her hands together, a smile making its way to her face, "Well then, we can't leave these two alone on their problem now, can we?", she turned around and glanced at her two friends, who were wearing the same expression as she was.

"Of course not. After all, we're after the same guy, why not join forces?", Nozomi proposed, making the two clients tense up a bit.

It was quite sudden.

"Uhm... there's no need to go that far. We just—"

"Oh hush now~ No need to worry. We are all a family if this keeps up! Besides, I reckon the two of you don't have a place to stay at the moment, yes?", The purple-haired girl cut off the bluenette's sentence as she placed her hands on her hips.

The blue-eyed girl bounced up in happiness as she heard that, "Really?! We can?! Umi-chan! Umi-chan! They said we can stay at their place! That means we can't bother Tsubasa-chan anymore and let her make us sleep at her office's front door!", she exclaimed in glee.

The three police officers, as the bluenette stated, were clueless at what the orange-haired girl was saying.

"Umi...chan?"

"Tsubasa...sleep..."

"...Front door?!"

"Honoka! We can't just bother them about that! And be grateful because Tsubasa managed to convince her manager to let us at least sleep on the floor at their office! Or would you have rather considered having to camp out at night for more than half a decade?!", the bluenette, apparently named Umi as to what the orange-haired girl, Honoka stated, scolded her with her brows furrowed.

Honoka just pouted and muttered a "sorry" under her breath, but she shut up. Umi then faced the other three, "Sorry about that. It's just..."

"We have three extra rooms, actually a lot of extra rooms. But there are only four available at the moment," Nozomi interjected, a grin on her face, making the other two shudder in fear, "Since there are five of us, I'd have to ask Umi to room in with Kotori."

Kotori, suddenly being called, blinked furiously, then reacted, "Eh?! Why is Umi in my room?!"

"Y-Yeah, I mean, Umi and Honoka can just share the other room," 'Besides, there are other available rooms, in total of nine, so why...?', Hanayo thought, but didn't say. She was a bit curious about what Nozomi was doing.

The purple-haired woman just smiled, "The other room is really small, so I don't think Umi and Honoka will fit there, so why not have Umi move to Kotori's room?"

"Why can't I just move in with Kotori-chan instead of Umi?", Honoka asked curiously, not noticing her honorifics of the gray-haired girl.

Nozomi just grinned, "Because...," she went closer to Honoka, whispered something, then backed away, giving Honoka some space to register her opinion.

Honoka being Honoka, she smiled like a miracle just happened, and suddenly agreed to Nozomi's choice of their rooms, "Yeah, that would be great! I guess Umi-chan will sleep with Kotori-chan then!"

The bluenette was taken aback, so was Kotori. "Eh? Why me though...?", Umi was also curious, but Nozomi seems to have different plans, and it didn't have anything to do with telling Umi about it.

"Just for a change of pace. I think Kotori could use a roommate now and then. And why not have someone of the same age as her?", the purple-haired woman said.

Again, Umi was surprised, "H-How did you know that I was the same age as Kotori?"

"Hmm... just a guess. And I was right. Hehe~", was the reply of the sly older girl.

Umi just sighed, "You're very weird," she muttered.

"Thank you~"

"It wasn't a compliment!"

"Hehee~ I guess we're all very close already!", Honoka stated, seeming as they were chatting like childhood friends who met for the first time in forever.

"Ahaha, yeah...", Kotori said as she chuckled weakly at Nozomi and Umi's banter, but quickly reacted to a rustling behind her.

Umi seemed to have also turned around, at a much faster pace than Kotori, and her head moved sideways like it was following the sounds.

"I hear something...," she whispered, body tense and head peering over from side to side.

Hanayo nodded, "I also smell something... blood," she weakly muttered, her shoulders shaking wildly but her her hands were being clasped together as to prevent the shaking from overreacting.

Nozomi nodded, "I feel a strange presence..."

At the nick of time, Kotori managed to go into a stealth phase, facing a shadow at her right, arm stretched out protecting the others.

The shadow emerged from the bushes, appearing to be what looked like a wolf, with blood-crazed eyes that were glowering in the dark like red bloodthirsty gems, fur as black as the night sky with red streaks at the ends, mouth snarling at the five in front of it.

"Is that a wolf? What's it doing here?", Honoka asked, oblivious to the happenings around her.

"Is it hungry? Hunting for prey? It looks like it's going to eat us at any moment now...," Umi followed the orange head's statement.

A frown formed on the purple-hared girl's face, "From your words, I guess the two of you are indoor people, right?"

Umi blinked rappidly, "How do you say that?"

"Well, commonly people wouldn't ask why a wolf is staring at you—," Nozomi pulled out two guns, one purple and the other white, from her back pockets, "—because everyone knows that..."

She shot the white gun at the wolf, making it growl in pain at the bullet pushed right into its left leg.

"...wolves, or any other animals at that..."

She then shot the purple gun at it, aiming for its right foot, but it was actually smart enough to dodge the incoming bullet, rolling over to one side, a low whine escaping its mouth.

"...don't exist anymore."

Umi's eyes widened, "W...What?!"

Tho wolf lunged itself at them, one paw tucked in as it pounced, strength as much as any other with how it could move even with one foot.

Kotori, reacting as fast as it moved, blocked it with her arm, resulting with it sinking its fangs into her, flesh dug and blood flowing out.

The ashen-haired girl yelped at the sudden pain, withstanding its force with her own unwavering, but weakening, power. Nozomi clicked her tongue, "I'll explain more later, right now we need to stop it."

She readied her armaments and aimed both at the beast, with Hanayo following suit as she steadily pointed a rod at the black wolf.

Umi had an arm in front of Honoka, the orange head looking straight at the wolf's eyes. She noticed.

How it turned from uncontrollable, to cautious, to frightened, and to guilt.

It pulled out its fangs from Kotori, the girl pulled down by gravity as she clutched onto her arm for dear life, while the wolf, backing down one foot to the other, eyes lit up like blazing sunlight.

Honoka moved, with Umi reacting too late as she had already been in front of the wolf. "Honoka—!"

"Hey, are you scared? It's okay! We won't hurt you!", the orange-haired teen smiled at the beast, hand outstretched for it to hold.

The wolf grew cautious, eyes still full of guilt, as it let out a low whine.

Nozomi, seeing as this was a new, and unexpected, development of the situation, withdrew her weapons into their holsters and moved forward to the human and the animal.

Sensing the armed human which gave it an injury, it snarled at the woman, but eventually yelped as it accidentally moved the shot paw.

Nozomi notioned for Hanayo to come closer, and when she did, she pointed at the wolf's leg.

The brown-haired girl understood the setting and redirected her hands onto the wolf, a soft green glow projected by it.

At first, the wolf made loud noises and seemed to be crawling away, but it calmed down a few minutes after sensing no harm from the light.

It healed, the bullet was gone and the hole was buried, but the pain was there. It wasn't felt but it was there.

And the wolf was thankful.

It started to glow in a red light.

Of course, this development was surprising for the others, but Nozomi seems to be quite fine with the scene.

She looked like she was expecting it, per se.

In a few moments, the light grew dimmer by the second, and when it was put out, a human was there.

Black midnight hair rustling with the wind, face and body full of scratches and blood, clothes tattered and ripped. It was a wonder how she survived in that kind of state.

And for how long she was living.

She dropped down to the ground, with the five surrounding her limp body.

"Is she gonna be okay?", was Honoka's question.

"She will be... Let's get her to the house first."


End file.
